Seating support structures that include wire grid products in the seat deck assembly are known. Currently, a typical wire grid product is suspended between the frame rails by stapling one border wire to the front rail with narrow crown staples. Wire or sheet metal hangers are then attached to the rear rail and tight wound helical extension springs are stretched between the rear border wire of the grid and the installed rear hangers. Although the wire grid product generally provides a comfortable seating surface initially, the nature of its installation is often problematic.
While helical springs generally provide for comfortable support when used to attach the rear of a wire grid seating assembly to a frame, they often lose their tension over time. Due to the mechanical nature of tight wound helical springs, exposure to heavy loads eventually decreases the tension in the springs. This tension cannot be retrieved without purchasing and installing a new set of springs. Accordingly, it is desirable to introduce a seating deck assembly that can be attached to a frame that provides comparable support and comfort while guaranteeing a longer useful life. A deck assembly that can handle extremely heavy loads without losing any mechanical integrity is also desired.
Current installation designs also increase the potential for weaker structures. Because the front side of wire grid assemblies are typically stapled, at a border wire, directly to the frame, the cross wires can sometimes break. If the front border wire is attached even slightly too far forward, the cross wires will make undesirable contact with the frame. Then, as the grid goes up and down in response to people sitting on, shifting on, and getting up from the seat, the wires flex on the board. This flex can be severe enough to break the wires, which compromises the integrity of the entire seating product. It is thus desirable to introduce a product that avoids this inherent risk by being easier to install with less precision, and preferably, by avoiding any contact between cross wires and the frame.
Current grid seating systems may also be quite noisy. Helical springs are generally attached using metal hangers. Movement on the seating product causes the helical springs to rotate and shift about their coupling with the hangers. The helical springs also generally are attached directly to the wires of the wire grid assembly, and this coupling may shift when the grid assembly moves. This metal on metal movement often causes an audible squeak that may get worse over time. Additionally, the cross wires may make unpleasant noise as they shift against the wood of the frame at the front attachment. Therefore, it is further desirable to have a deck assembly that attaches to a seating product frame in such a way that movement of the deck assembly is noise free.
Therefore, it has been one objective of the present invention to provide a seating product which does not require the use of helical springs in order to secure the ends of a deck assembly to the frame of the seating product.
It has further been an objective of the present invention to provide a seating product which does not require directly stapling a border wire of a wire grid assembly to the frame of the seating product to attach the deck assembly thereto.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a seating product in which movement of a deck assembly in response to a user's movement does not create unnecessary noise.